Health fraud suspicion

The Southern District Health Board was told in 2010 its
multimillion-dollar dispute with South Link Health (SLH) might
be fraud, but the dispute was not referred to police, board
chairman Joe Butterfield has revealed.

The admission came as Mr Butterfield was questioned by
Parliament's health select committee yesterday.

The dispute involved whether SLH spent savings achieved in
laboratory testing and pharmaceutical contracts as per its
agreement with the funding authority.

It is estimated the original $5.3 million arising from 1990s
health contracts could have ballooned to about $15 million
with interest.

What will this lead to? Those who have had treatment delayed
or not received treatment at all due to SDHB budget
shortfalls will have cause to ask: why? Those involved know
better than to make comments that "I said" this or that. The
fact is, "if it isn't written down it didn't happen".
[Abridged]